1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card, an information recording card and a method of using those cards.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known magnetic card, i.e., an information recording card, has a rectangular base card, and a magnetic stripe provided by printing or the like on the base card. The magnetic card is used as a prepaid card, such as a calling card (telephone card), a ball renting card to rent balls to play a pinball game or the like.
When using the magnetic card, information magnetically recorded in the magnetic stripe of the magnetic card is read by a read head, and the telephone line is connected for telephone service or balls to play a pinball game are dispensed. A write head rewrites the information recorded in the magnetic stripe every time the magnetic card is used, and a hole is punched in the base card of the magnetic card at a position corresponding to rewritten information. The punched hole is used for authenticating the magnetic information recorded in the magnetic stripe.
Magnetic cards have often been used dishonestly in recent years, in which the information recorded in the magnetic stripe is altered dishonestly. To use the magnetic card dishonestly, the recorded information is altered dishonestly and the punched holes are filled up. Nevertheless, effective measures to cope with such dishonest use of magnetic cards has not been found so far. An IC card formed by embedding an IC module in a base card is another information recording card, which also is considered to be subject to dishonest use.